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KSD

Anton de Witt and Esethu Ndzamela

Table of Contents 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1

2. Case study .......................................................................................................... 2

2.1 Demographic profile .......................................................................................... 2

2.2 Economic profile ............................................................................................ 3

2.3 Municipal infrastructure profile ...................................................................... 3

2.4 Municipal finance and governance ................................................................ 4

3. Main spatial transformation issues ...................................................................... 4

4. Spatial change in KSD ........................................................................................ 5

5. Assessment of SDF ............................................................................................ 6

5.1 The quality of the planning process ............................................................... 7

5.1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 7

5.1.2 Intergovernmental relations ................................................................ 8

5.2 The quality of the plan ................................................................................... 9

5.3 Extent of implementation ............................................................................. 11

5.4 Does spatial transformation take place? ............................................................ 12

6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 14

References ............................................................................................................... 16

List of Figures

Figure 1: Dense settlement in KSD, 1990 and 2014 (black sections indicate settlement in 1990 and the red, expanded settlement by 2014) .................... 5

List of Tables

Table 1: Demographic profile of KSD ......................................................................... 2

Table 2: Economic growth rates per sector and the size of economic sectors in KSD Municipality, 1996‒2015 .............................................................................. 3

Table 3: The infrastructure profile for KSD, 1996‒2016 ............................................. 4

1. Introduction South Africa’s colonial and apartheid histories have left the country’s urban areas with a distinctive spatial legacy. The racial planning ideologies have resulted in racial segregation, low densities, sprawling suburbs, and, in many cases, the urban poor have been located on the periphery of cities (Dewar, 2003). This subsequently brought about the need to transform South African cities spatially, as means to remedy the effects of the apartheid planning of urban areas. The idea of transforming South African cities spatially is associated with notions of spatial densification and integration. Reference to this concept was first made in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). These ideas were later championed by the UDF in 1997 and by the NDP through the Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) (Pieterse, 2017). The IUDF is centred on four pillars or concepts of spatial integration, namely inclusion, access, growth and governance. Spatial integration aims to create new spatial forms in settlements, transport, and in social and economic hubs. Inclusion and access are intended to guarantee that citizens enjoy access to social and economic services and activities. The growth plan is meant to be inclusive of race, gender and people with disabilities. All of the foregoing are to be underpinned by good administration so that the state and citizens can all pursue the same goals. It is within this context that the present case study focuses on King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) in the Eastern Cape. Mthatha was originally built in the mid 1800s along the Umtata River as a white settlement to act as a buffer between the native tribes of the AbaThembu and AmaMpondo who were at war with one another over land disputes (Siyongwana, 2006). The town later grew to become an important logistical hub in the early days of trade and travel in South Africa. This made Mthatha a prominent centre for trade in the early part of the 20th century. It is thus no surprise to see that its economy is today still largely driven by the retail sector. With time, Mthatha’s prominence increased, especially during the era of homelands in South Africa. In 1976, Mthatha became the capital of the Transkei homeland and in 1994, it was incorporated into the Eastern Cape Province. Mthatha is now the main town of the KSD Municipality and hosts the headquarters of the OR Tambo District Municipality. Mthatha is not only an administrative hub for the surrounding towns but it is also the main economic, transport, health and education centre in the region (Siyongwana, 2006). While these sectors had a significant influence on the growth of the town after 1994, growth was been largely marred by lack of infrastructure (such as roads), of urban standards, the fact of poorly maintained bulk-services infrastructure and an electricity-grid capacity that has not kept up with the town’s spatial growth. Mthatha is also unique because, unlike other towns, it displays both urban and rural characteristics. Planning for development in this area is thus no easy matter: traditional spheres of governance must be dealt with; traditional customs need to be observed; and, in some cases, issues of land ownership between the state and traditional communities have to be resolved. This case study on Mthatha brings to the fore a number of important issues. Firstly, we assess the dominant role of traditional rule in communities and how it can accelerate or obstruct development. Secondly, our case study shows how difficult it is to deal with economic systems that were set up and financed by the apartheid regime

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prior to 1994. This means that development in the area should be driven not only by state funding but also by attracting private investors. This brings us to the third point, namely that such investors will play their part once government has put in place certain infrastructure such as roads, bulk services and electricity provision. Finally, we should also take note that development should not go uncontrolled as has been the case in this town, in which development appears to have been largely uncoordinated. The main focus of this study is to assess how well secondary cities have been able to implement their spatial development framework (SDF) plans that are underpinned by the principles of SPLUMA and have been designed to drive spatial transformation so as to redress the effects of apartheid planning. The second objective is to determine whether these cities are indeed able to afford to implement SPLUMA if the concept proves to be relevant to secondary cities. For the purposes of this study, information was gathered by accessing the relevant existing literature. This provided a basis for determining what the researcher would need to note in the data-collection phase. The data were collected from the municipality in question in two forms. First, we accessed the municipality’s planning and strategy documents, such as its Integrated Development Plan (IDP). Second, we conducted interviews with municipal officials, members of the city council and representatives of the private sector. All of these interviews were captured and processed to help the researcher to gain a better understanding of the planning documents and to determine how well they were being implemented, and of how these plans were benefiting the specific municipality. 2. Case study For logistical and practical study-related reasons, Mthatha was chosen as the secondary city to be put under scrutiny because it has all the characteristics required to make it representative of a typical South African secondary city.

2.1 Demographic profile The KSD Municipality comprises the towns of Mthatha and Mqanduli and also the surrounding rural areas. While the municipality is predominantly rural, the urban areas are centred around the two towns (see Table 1). Table 1: Demographic profile of KSD

Indicator 1996 2001 2011 2016

Total number of people 396 312 416 348 451 710 490 207

Total number of people (urban) n/a n/a 156 003 179 704

Total number of people (rural) n/a n/a 295 708 310 503

Rural (traditional) n/a n/a 295 124 309 693

Rural (commercial farms) n/a n/a 584 810

Total number of households 80 711 89 697 105 240 116 243

Average annual growth rate of population since previous period

n/a 1.0 0.8 1.6

Average annual growth rate of households since previous period

n/a 2.1 1.6 2.0

The 2016 population was just shy of 500 000, with the 2011 population standing at 451 710 inhabitants. Between 1996 and 2001, the population growth rate was 1% and

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between 2001 and 2011, it was 0.8%. These percentages are largely in line with the natural population growth in South Africa. At least this shows that very few people are moving into the area. Of the 451 710 inhabitants, 98% are black and the remaining 2% is made up whites, coloureds and Indians. In terms of gender, 54% of the population are female and 46% male, which suggests that some male migrant workers are employed elsewhere (Western Cape and mining areas). The age structure of the area is as follows: young (0-14), 35%, working age (15-64), 59.9%, and the elderly (65+), 5.1%. The education demographics are as follows: those with no schooling (aged 20+), 14%, passed matric (20+), 18.9% and those with tertiary education, 10.7%. 2.2 Economic profile Economic growth rates for the municipality largely followed national patterns (see Table 2).

Table 2: Economic growth rates per sector and the size of economic sectors in KSD Municipality, 1996‒2015

Economic sector

Annual economic growth rates Share of the

economy

1996‒2001 2001‒2011 2011‒2015 2015

Agriculture 5.0 1.7 0.4 0.6

Mining 0.9 -1.2 2.4 0.4

Manufacturing 2.0 2.0 1.0 3.4

Electricity 2.9 1.4 -0.8 1.8

Construction 4.5 7.3 4.5 3.7

Wholesale and retail 1.6 4.0 2.7 19.8

Transport 5.1 4.0 1.6 7.3

Finance 2.9 5.9 3.5 20.1

General government 0.0 3.0 0.6 33.9

Community services 3.9 3.3 1.8 9.1

Total 1.7 3.8 1.9 100.0

Government services (34%) and retail (20%) drive the economy of KSD. Some of the major national sectors ‒ such as mining and agriculture ‒ are insignificant. The economic growth rates largely mirror national trends (albeit at slightly lower rates). The unemployment rate in KSD stands at 38.3%, with youth unemployment being 48.3%. These percentages are much higher than the national average and suggest how difficult it is to find employment in this peripheral location.

2.3 Municipal infrastructure profile The ability of a municipality to provide services is directly dependent on two factors, namely available finances and land. The large and dominant nature of traditional land in KSD makes service delivery difficult (see Table 3).

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Table 3: The infrastructure profile for KSD, 1996‒2016

Indicator 1996 2001 2011 2016

Total number of households 80 711 89 697 105 240 116 243

Number of households with indoor water access 11 085 8 347 20 069 18 274

Percentage of households with indoor water access

13.7 9.3 19.1 15.7

Number of households with flush-toilet access 16 076 22 174 35 582 42 659

Percentage of households with flush-toilet access

19.9 24.7 33.8 36.7

Number of households with electricity access 17 132 37 385 77 182 98 227

Percentage of households with electricity access

21.2 41.7 73.3 84.5

Number of households living in informal structures 3 938 4 055 2 086 2 689

Percentage of households living in informal structures

4.9 4.5 2.0 2.3

The above profile indicates how difficult it has been for KSD to provide services, especially water and waterborne sanitation. Just more than a third of the households have access to waterborne sanitation and less than 20% have access to in-house water. Electricity access is also lower than the South African average. The urban sprawl outside the formal urban boundary onto traditional land is currently the main factor preventing better service delivery.

2.4 Municipal finance and governance An inability both to expand the urban land and to service land under traditional authority rule contributes to the poor state of municipal finances. For this reason, it is effectively not possible to levy property tax on large tracts of land. There are also other problems, such as low expenditure on maintenance and a high expenditure on salaries. Municipal governance seems also to be under pressure because the municipality received qualified audit outcomes for the last three consecutive financial years.

3. Main spatial transformation issues The King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) Municipality is a unique study. Because the area is both urban and rural, it has a unique set of spatial issues and the area is therefore faced with numerous challenges. The main issues are centred on settlements: land availability, land invasions on municipal land earmarked for developments, low density in the rural parts, a coordinated transport system and economic growth that is exceeded by the population growth rate of economically viable individuals. Developments in KSD, coupled with its rural nature and rural sprawl, have caused rural commuters to experience increased travel distances and times in order to access services, to trade or just to get to places of work and to attend school. This is largely due to activities in the KSD area still being concentrated in the urban areas.

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For some, because of a lack of proximity to places of employment, this creates a knock-on effect of economic exclusion. One cannot expect an unemployed job-seeker to be able to keep on travelling 15 km or more a day to reach the economic centres to find employment. KSD is located in what was formerly the Transkei, an area in which manufacturing and agriculture did well enough to sustain the population. In the post-1994 period, we have seen drastic divestment in both sectors. We now have farming land that belongs to the government that stands vacant and an industrial park that now caters mostly for light industries, such as panel beaters and for wholesale and distribution warehouses. This does not help to reduce the high unemployment rate of 38.3% in the KSD Municipality. Current developments in the KSD region are rarely aligned with those outlined by the Municipal Council nor do they help to deal with the spatial concerns of the municipality.

4. Spatial change in KSD In this section we consider the changing patterns of urban settlement in KSD over nearly 25 years.

Figure 1: Dense settlement in KSD, 1990 and 2014 (black sections indicate settlement in 1990 and the red, expanded settlement by 2014)

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Between 1990 and 2014, the area of dense settlement in KSD declined by -3.2%. Figure 1 also shows the new dense settlements around Mthatha. The rural areas have thus lost people while the urban area has gained a large percentage of people.

5. Assessment of SDF It is not clear when the KSD SDF was drafted but the available timeline specifies that Council adopted it in May 2013. The current SDF is under review because its current implementation period will end in 2018. SDFs are only valid for a period of five years. The KSD SDF is very concise and does not go into detail as to how the set goals are to be achieved and how the necessary role players will be enticed to come on board. The SDF has three main goals: firstly, to guide the distribution of current and future developments; secondly, to align the physical developments with the goals of the municipal IDP; and lastly, to manage land use in such a way that it improves the location of settlements . The KSD Municipality outsourced the process of developing the SDF to private consultants. Their reasoning for doing so was that as a municipality, they lacked the resources to do so in-house, especially in terms of the human capital (Soldati, 2017). The Human Settlements Department budgeted for the development of the SDF, as the department knew well in advance of the constraints with which they were faced in terms of developing it in-house. According to the SDF, the plan is to transform KSD with a view to promoting mixed land use in the urban areas, especially on the periphery of the commercial zone. Its intent is to utilise the transitional space between the commercial and the residential zones by having light industries like motor dealerships, auto-spares and other services, like filling stations. Signs of this are already apparent in KSD because such developments are already in place in the northern part of Mthatha. Increasing densities is another strategy for transforming KSD spatially in the rural areas. This will be done by developing nodes as detailed earlier. The development of these nodes is also aimed at changing rural settlements from their currently sparse form so that they will become more dense and nucleated settlements. This is bound to improve service delivery and the development of infrastructure in rural KSD. The overall economic prospects of the KSD case study are very promising as the plans have been agreed upon by all parties involved. The first challenge for this area will be to acquire land for development as land ownership in the area is currently being contested between the municipality and traditional houses. Secondly, it will be raising the necessary capital to drive the developments. KSD should not find it difficult because investors have shown much interest in the area itself but also in developing it only to have planned developments halted by land claims. All of these efforts have been undertaken with a view ultimately to enhance the accessibility of services, providing economic opportunities and shortening travel times for the KSD citizens. The KSD’s SDF was tabled and subsequently adopted by the KSD Municipal Council in May 2013. During the gathering of the above information, we found all of the interviewed personnel, including the councillors of the governing and the opposition parties in KSD to be overwhelmingly positive about the fact that the SDF was good and a good tool to drive spatial transform in the municipality. Red flags

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were however raised about the competence of the professionals who were implementing it, the municipality’s skills capacity and how well the traditional leaders and public happened to be educated about these plans that encompass the SPLUMA principles. 5.1 The quality of the planning process

5.1.1 Introduction The IDP exerted a major influenced on the SDF development process. This was the case because the IDP provided a strong basis and much background information on the developmental issues of the KSD Local Municipality (Soldati, 2017). The IDP had a wide array of issues that needed to be addressed by the SDF and since the IDP had already been completed before the SDF, the analysis it provided of the socio-economic issues and developmental needs set the benchmark for SDF development. As previously noted, private consultants drafted the SDF. The planning process with the consultants proceeded well because the head of the municipality’s Human Settlements Department became an ex-officio member of the team entrusted with drafting the SDF. This was done to minimise any miscommunication or misinterpretation between KSD and the consultants of the municipality’s needs regarding the SDF. The result was that the SDF was as accurate and true a reflection of the municipal plans as possible. The consultants who developed the SDF on behalf of the municipality maintained good relations with the various departments of the municipality that were involved in the planning, so much so that when questioned about this, the various departments all knew what, according to the SDF, their roles in development were. The municipality has no functional GIS system as it relies on various external agencies for its GIS needs. The municipality therefore relies on the Municipal Demarcation Board for maps that illustrate the spatial characteristics of the municipal area and the distribution of the wards. When assessing the municipality’s institutional capacity, we found it to be seriously lacking. There was a lack staff with the skills required to enable them to provide optimal spatial planning functions. This view was supported by a councillor who admitted that the plans of the SDF were good, but only in theory because the municipality lacked people with the competencies to implement them. Although the Human Settlements Department leads it, the SDF of any municipality is never solely the responsibility of just one department. In KSD, the other departments had very little to do with the planning of the SDF but because development is a multifaceted phenomenon they assisted whenever necessary. The municipality’s engineering department had minimal involvement because it usually only became involved once the development nodes had been identified. The role of this department is to provide the required support as regards the necessary infrastructure for the development to go ahead ‒ be it expanding the bulk-services network, the roads network or providing electricity. It is common knowledge that infrastructure development is a major catalyst in development. The SDF is therefore never complete or credible without the inputs from this department and its detailed assessments. The Finance Department in this municipality plays a negligible role in the SDF planning, as the economic viability of the proposed development zones is primarily covered in the IDP.

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5.1.2 Intergovernmental relations In its planning process, the KSD does consider the plans of other spheres of government even though those have no direct input in the development of the SDF. The planning process however fails adequately to consider the plans of the district municipality, although the district municipality plays a vital role in terms of service delivery. The OR Tambo District Municipality provides water and sanitation directly to the KSD rural populace. An example of this disjuncture is that the local authorities sometimes duplicate the role played by the district municipality. This is a result of the strained relations between the different levels of government, a phenomenon that will be detailed later. The provincial plans have been considered, especially as regards the economy and transport in the development nodes. There are various examples of alignment. For one, Viedgiesville is being developed as a major logistics hub for KSD and rightly so because it it situated right next to the railway line that connects KSD to the rest of province. It is also situated next to the N2 gateway, a major national transport route that stretches from KwaZulu-Natal to the Western Cape, a route that places KSD midway between two of the largest ports on the continent. Both of these routes are essential for the transport of goods, commuters and tourists in this area. The Viedgiesville node is also located such that it supports other nodes, for example the Mqanduli node, which is to become a centre of agricultural produce. It furthermore provides a gateway to the tourist destination of the Coffee Bay tourism node. As regards national government plans, the municipality is particularly careful to consider such plans because KSD is currently under what is known as the Presidential Intervention Plan. The Intervention Plan comes with an investment in approximately 50 projects of over R30 billion in infrastructure development. One such project is the upgrading of the Mthatha Airport and of the N2 road. This is all being done to decrease travelling time within the KSD and to make KSD more accessible. The excellent alignment between the top two spheres of governance is the result of the fact that they fund various development projects, such as the low-cost housing project in the north-eastern part of KSD. This is being funded by provincial government through the Human Settlements Department. The national government collaborates in a similar way as the provincial government does. National government projects, such as upgrading the N2 and the airport, are aimed at enticing investors to invest their capital in the various nodes. The spin-offs from some of the completed projects are already bearing fruit, as KSD is seeing an influx of travellers to the area for both leisure and business, a fact to which the booming of the hospitality industry in the area attests. Although we see good levels of alignment between KSD’s plans and that of the different spheres of government, how it came about needs to be explained. Local government authorities are faced with the challenge of having the higher sectors of government impose their plans on them. If the plans are rejected, local authorities find themselves being subjected to persuasion by politicians to approve the plans for implementation even if, at times, the latter are at loggerheads with the municipality’s very own. Even if they have to be implemented at the local level, projects imposed on local government authorities are often developed with no input from the local authorities. This is also how the district municipality primarily functions. This disjuncture is attributable to a number of factors of which factional battles, power

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struggles, inflated egos and blatant disregard for local authorities are the most common. This is an alarming phenomenon. In this particular district, the district municipality directly provides some services that a local municipality would normally provide to its inhabitants. This has now created an atmosphere of bullying, with the local authorities enduring the most. This way of operating has now spilled over to private investors who develop plans without consulting local authorities. When such plans are rejected, the private investors seek political intervention to push their development projects forward. 5.2 The quality of the plan The KSD Municipality has an SDF that has been found to be highly compliant with SPLUMA, especially in terms of assessing the requirements set out in Section 21 of Chapter 4 in SPLUMA. Aims or outcomes stated in the SDF are to promote the economic potential of the poor and to maximise opportunities for them, to improve accessibility, to minimise the cost of physical expansion, to ensure that people are well located in relation to opportunities and amenities, and to promote a sustainable environment. In addition to the aforementioned aims, it is also the intention of the KSD SDF to provide a basis that informs the development of a coherent land-use management system. The SDF provides a broad framework for land-use planning and includes land-use guidelines to be used in guiding the municipality in managing land. In terms of land-use management, the municipality has found it very difficult to plan on rural land, this being due to the fact that traditional authorities do not buy into these development concepts. The municipality has thus had serious clashes with them. In some instances, the conflict has been of such magnitude that it has taken court processes to solve them. The municipality has now decided to halt all developments that had been earmarked for areas under traditional rule until the land claims in the contested areas have been resolved. The result of this decision is that the municipality is now asking national government to donate some of the several pockets of land that it inherited from the pre-1994 government. The SDF does not consider alternative concepts or paths. That said, it is worth noting that during the interviews it came to light that development was to be altered and driven towards the Mthatha Airport node (westward of KSD). This means that the land to be developed belongs to national government and not to local government. For the municipality to drive development in this direction, it will first have to deal with a few challenges, the first being invasions on municipal land. The problem is so far gone, the City Council decided that the best way deal with the challenge was to formalise the informal settlements west of Mthatha. This was done with a view to controlling development in that area and to ensure that the area would be targeted as a growth point in the future. This plan gained momentum when the Infrastructure Department committed itself to partnering with Human Settlements in developing the area. Infrastructure and Finance have since also come on board by helping to set up designated zones for informal traders in the Mthatha region of KSD. This not only recognises hawkers as a vital part of the town’s economy but it also partly prevents hawkers from taking up too much of sidewalks, which poses problems for pedestrians.

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The presence of hawkers on sidewalks has exacerbated the problem in KSD of not being pedestrian friendly. A market is now being built where the hawkers can trade. This is done with the aim of helping them become more efficient as businesses and also in the interests of better regulation by the municipality in the form of permits. A court battle recently followed here between the municipality and the street vendors after the municipality had impounded their mobile caravans on sidewalks, one that the vendors won. The construction of a market place will also help alleviate the problem of mobile caravans. The knock-on benefit of this is a less congested sidewalk that is bound to promote the use of the market, which may develop into a “one-stop shop” for goods and services rendered by informal businesses. This will promote the concept of mixed land use as the area set aside for the planned development of this market already has not only other light industries but also a pivotal transport point, and a route both for residents of the southern areas of Mthatha and for travellers to tourist hubs like Coffee Bay. This development further emphasises KSD’s compliance with SPLUMA principles. The utilisation of mixed land use will increase densities in the area, which will increase the number of people moving in and out of the area as the area is mainly a major transport point in the town. Such mixed land-use developments are very influential in creating higher densities in the KSD area, an area that is unique because of its rural nature. The rural settlements tend to become less dense as one moves farther away from the urban area. Mixed land use can help solve these problems in rural settlements by planners concentrating settlements around the economic hubs like the Viedgiesville Node, which is rural. This will also help improve service delivery as it will be easier to provide infrastructure like water, sanitation, roads and electricity to settlements that are much denser than they currently are. This will eventually lead to shorter travel times, especially for those living in rural settlements as they will be able to access more of the goods and services they often travel long distances to procure. At the moment, commuters in KSD are almost entirely dependent on the taxi industry for transport. The municipality has not yet made provision for any other mode of transport. Although the provincial government does have a very limited bus system operating in the area, it caters for the entire district because its service connects commuters from the surrounding smaller towns and villages with Mthatha (Soldati, 2017) (Ngovela, 2017). The SDF is but a small section in the IDP. While it does not delve much into aspects such as climate change and economic risks, it does however highlight opportunities offered by the development nodes that have been established. In the long term, this will help to shorten travel times for citizens wishing to access services and other economic activities. The plan does not address issues such as climate change and intensive resource or protected natural areas, this being largely due to the fact that the municipality does not have the capacity to make assessments on such issues and then to table the appropriate action designed either to eradicate or mitigate the effects or results of the issues. As mentioned before, the Nduli Nature Reserve is the only protected area

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documented in KSD. The lack of such knowledge does not seem to have had a major effect on the development projects in KSD. Road construction, filling stations and shopping mall developments have carried on. One assumes that impact assessments for such developments have been completed and that the projects are environmentally sound. Some of the projects were undertaken with a view ultimately to decentralise services and amenities from the city centre. As these developments became functional, they achieved the intended target. People are now able to access banks, supermarkets, the post office and filling stations closer to their places of residence than before. This has had a knock-on effect of reducing travel times in respect of accessing such facilities, though not necessarily to places of employment. These developments are well aligned with bulk-infrastructure provision in the town (Mthatha) as most of the development happens in close proximity to already existing settlements or even within them. The challenge will however be to re-align once the infrastructure of Mqanduli and Coffee Bay is being developed. If the infrastructure development is financed solely by the KSD Municipality, this would empty their coffers. Development in especially the latter two towns is however being financed by the provincial and the national government, which obviously dramatically lessens the load on KSD. Most of these developments aim to uplift the poor and improve their socio-economic conditions. With the assistance of the Human Settlements Department at the provincial level, several housing projects have been initiated and some of the beneficiaries have already received their houses. This will assist with the provision of bulk services as planners will be able to determine how infrastructure is needed and where it is needed for roads, electricity and bulk services. This will enable the municipality to control future growth and align it with the development principles of SPLUMA. Non-alignment is not only apparent in private developments but also in public (government) developments. This is the result of very little consultation between the different spheres of government in the planning phase of the particular development concerned. In the recent past, national and provincial plans were imposed on KSD. In many instances, this has served to disrupt the municipality’s own plans. The local municipality’s plans are bound to be better informed as to what areas and what developments need to be prioritised to achieve significant spatial transformation in the area. However, we have recently seen KSD being put under administration as a presidential intervention area, this being a result of the municipality’s failures in administration. The major benefit of this process in terms of planning for KSD is that the local authorities are now better informed of national plans regarding KSD. Though this has led to better alignment in terms of planning, these plans are however still largely being planned, financed and implemented by national government and the local authorities now plan around them. 5.3 Extent of implementation Whereas the provincial government is also given some assistance, the current SDF is largely implemented with the help of national government. This is mainly due to the fact the KSD Municipality has been placed under the Presidential Intervention Plan

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and is subject to specified financial constraints. In terms of the actual SDF plans, there has been implementation on some of the nodes, for example the R61 Development Corridor to the Mthatha Airport was upgraded so that it could become operational, and further east in the same corridor, settlements are being developed in the New Brighton and Maiden Farm precincts. That the airport has indeed resulted in increased travel to KSD is borne out by the growth experienced in the hospitality sector in Mthatha. The two settlements of New Brighton and Maiden Farm were developed so that low-income earners could live closer to their places of work. This means that the inhabitants of the settlements are now able to walk to town, which has decreased commuting time. Beyond the development nodes and corridors, the SDF does not detail any specific spatial targets. It only speaks of development that has to be in alignment with the principles of SPLUMA. Financial constraints have made its overall implementation quite difficult. More importantly though, in most cases there are land-claim issues in areas where developments have been targeted. Because the land claims first need to be resolved before any other steps are taken, this problem has halted many of the developments. Intergovernmental relations influence the SDF to a large and not necessarily positive extent. When the SDF was developed, there was very little input from the other spheres of government. One is thus faced with a situation in which developers ‒ both private and public ‒ will later table developments that are mostly contradictory to the SDF plans, in which case, the plans are sure to be rejected by the municipality’s Human Settlements Department. When higher spheres of government are involved, they pull rank to push the proposed project through. Private developers make use of political influence. Other departments do not seem to be using the SDF. Developments in the town seem to follow a decidedly reactionary pattern, for example, the Infrastructure Department only upgraded the electricity grid after years of electrical outages in the town. The upgrade only came after they had discovered that the grid could no longer handle the growth experienced in the town. Yet, had it acted in alignment with the SDF, the Infrastructure Department would have been proactive and increased the electrical grid’s capacity well in advance or, at the very least, have kept abreast of the growth that had accompanied development. There is no evidence to suggest that any monitoring of the SDF is being done or that it is being implemented in the municipality. Discussions with both the Infrastructure and Finance departments revealed that they had very little knowledge of the SDF itself, of how it is meant to work in guiding development and of how the other departments are meant to assess it. 5.4 Does spatial transformation take place? In its implementation of spatial transformation, the KSD Municipality is faced with a number of issues. As already mentioned, these issues include land claims, land invasion, maladministration, a lack of integration in different spheres of governance and private sector involvement.

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Even though the KSD Municipality is well aware of the spatial concerns that need to be addressed in the local municipality, its SDF does not seem to prioritise these concerns. Because there have been several changes to the town’s street layout, the spatial transformation issues that have been identified and addressed, have mostly been transport related. The two main streets affected by the N2 traffic passing through the town have been converted into one-way streets to alleviate traffic congestion. This project has further included the construction of a bypass for N2 traffic coming in from the north and south of Mthatha. A second bypass intended to allow traffic flowing from east to west and vice versa is in progress along the R61 route and will soon be completed. The above projects are only a few that have been successfully implemented and are functional. The SDF does not explicitly detail spatial transformation. One is forced to consult other municipal documents to find details. In many instances, spatial transformation is not detailed in any document. This calls into question the authority of the SDF in the municipality. Because the SDF contains very little detail, it is difficult to determine the root causes of the spatial planning issues that KSD has to solve. Though the municipal officials we interviewed claimed to be at least 80% SPLUMA compliant, there is no indication that SPLUMA implementation protocols have been used. The coordination of plans between the KSD Municipality, the different spheres of governance and the private sector is currently very poor. As already stated, they almost function independently of one another. Officials have not detailed platforms for intergovernmental planning or investment strategies. This once again points to the fact that the higher spheres of government have their own plans that they impose on local authorities. The few instances of intergovernmentally coordinated investments that we have managed to find have mostly been part of the Presidential Intervention Plan and very few of these are aligned with the provincial plans. These plans are largely based on providing infrastructure investment. The evidence is in the upgrades of electrical stations to meet the demands of the growing KSD population, the upgrading of roads and streets that carry freight and traveller traffic and the upgrading of the old KD Matanzima Airport, now known as the Mthatha Airport. The KSD has identified strategic investment zones in order to achieve its spatial transformation targets. These investment zones have been identified as nodes and development corridors. To a large extent, they comply with the SPLUMA framework but only in planning because very little has been seen in terms of the implementation of these plans by the KSD Municipality. The identified nodes target areas that were formerly largely undeveloped in the KSD. This is done to improve the standard of living of the surrounding communities who benefit, at the very least, from the infrastructure development in the zones. In theory, this will lead to higher densities in rural KSD but, to date, little has been seen in terms of implementation. As a result of the above, it has become apparent that the private sector in KSD has its own development plans and implements these with very little or no regard for the SDF guidelines. This is exacerbated by special concessions granted them by the politicians in the local municipality. This is all a result of poor private sector

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mobilisation initiatives by KSD. The private sector is lacking a clear understanding of their role in transforming KSD. Of the three hypotheses, the first and the third seem to hold for the KSD. The municipality has prioritised having the plans drafted and approved but has given very little thought to how they are to go about implementing these plans. This is evident in the lack of personnel with the relevant or necessary skills to conceptualise such plans and see them internally being accepted. This sentiment was also echoed by a councillor of the opposition. The councillor identified this as one the major setbacks in the municipality. Furthermore, the SDF itself is silent on how public or private investment is to be attracted with which to drive the planned development. As the municipality is not itself in a financial position to fund the developments, this is rather alarming. If the KSD Municipality is to be better off when it comes to the development of the area, it would be better advised to set up a development agency. Such an agency would centralise all developments in the municipality and also help capacitate it to be seen to be capable of better implementation. Having a development agency is further sure to improve the position of the KSD Municipality because it would start partnering in joint ventures with other spheres of government and the private sector. This would generate more funds to use as capital for future developments, which would ultimately aid them in achieving their spatial transformation targets. The third assumption made in relation to the SPLUMA tools used in implementation also holds for KSD. The stakeholders in KSD are not well informed as regards what SPLUMA is and what it aims to achieve. As a result, we find traditional authorities are very reluctant to engage in talks about SPLUMA. Their main fear is that their role as traditional authorities will be cast aside because the Act makes very little reference to the role they ought to play in the development of the area. This is a direct result of the municipality’s lack of adequate engagement with stakeholders. During the interviews, I also gained the impression that the councillors themselves, who are supposed to give the officials a mandate and bring them to book, do not quite understand SPLUMA. If they do not themselves grasp the concept, this creates a major challenge in terms of getting buy-in from the other stakeholders. 6. Conclusion The main issues in the KSD Municipality have been adequately diagnosed. As the municipality lacks the necessary skills to undertake such tasks internally, outsourcing the SDF certainly did help in this regard. The SDF is however lacking in terms of detailing where and how the outlined goals are to be achieved. It is to their credit that they have nevertheless identified the geographical areas and the nodes in which development is to be centred. The present SDF also seems to be largely a cut-and-paste exercise of the previous SDFs. This leads to the conclusion that plans are not implemented for one or the other reason. One could postulate reasons for their non-implementation, such as financial constraints, maladministration and resistance from stakeholders or even any combination of the three. During the better part of the interactions, the officials and the councillors understood the problems with which they were faced in the area and they also seemed to have a good grasp of how to solve them. It is entirely privatised, as a

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result the industry’s stakeholders can do just as they please without having to fear any consequences, this being so because the entire economy of the town hinges on the taxi industry. To improve transport services and bulk services delivery, the compilers of the SDF need to consider carefully how they plan to densify the rural settlements. They also need to focus on how infrastructure ‒ such as roads ‒ is to be provided with a view to increasing accessibility in and out of rural settlements. In implementation, little thought is given to spatial transformation that is in line with SPLUMA principles, this being the case because developments in the town tend to deviate from the SDF of which those who plan them have no knowledge. As is evident in the new settlements that are being developed in Mthatha East, the municipality also does not pay much attention to spatial transformation. The issue of land claims has turned out to be one of the municipality’s biggest stumbling blocks in terms of SDF implementation. The issue is so serious that, to date, it has already cost the municipality R500 million in lawsuits as a result of developments being approved and given the go-ahead by the municipality but subsequently halted by land claims from surrounding communities and royal houses. This further delays developments and with suits eating into the town’s financial resources, this paints a grim picture of spatial transformation in Mthatha. This leads one to realise that spatial transformation in secondary cities will remain a constitutional pipe dream. This is the case because it is unaffordable, the skills required to draw up and implement effective plans are lacking, there is no cohesion between the private and public sectors and, lastly, in many instances, the infrastructure is either dilapidated or has reached maximum carrying capacity and thus fails to service a growing population. The idea of spatial transformation in secondary cities needs to be revisited in terms of how it is to be implemented and what level of government should finance it. As is obvious in the case of Mthatha, successful projects have been financially backed by national government.

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